In January 2007 I needed to find a new job. I had no idea what I wanted to do but I knew that I wasn’t interested in sales anymore. I decided that maybe temping for awhile, until I discovered what I wanted to do, would be the best option. I took a position Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator / Office Manager for a subsidiary of a very large mining company. I was working in an office full of engineers (men). Needless to say this was very interesting. My three month contract was renewed a few times and I landed up staying there for a year and 3 months.
I was back on my Venlor full time and I decided to keep it that way for awhile.
I still kept in touch with some of the girls I met at the-company-no-one-spoke-about anymore. One of the girls was (and still is) a fashion designer and stylist. Her and I decided to join forces and open up a business in personal shopping, wardrobe analysis and styling. We put a lot of time into it and registered a CC. Unfortunately she was offered a stylist position out of South Africa for 3 months so we decided to can it and move on. I learnt a lot from opening our own company and it was then that I realised I wanted love to eventually work for myself.
I left the mining company in May 2008 for a permanent Office Manager position for Robin Banks and Associates. Robin is a motivational speaker and Mind Power coach. When I was offered the job, I remember telling my mom that I have a feeling that this is going to be the life changing experience I have been waiting for…little did I know how right I was. But things were going to get harder personally before they got better. I had a lot of life lessons to learn!
I did the Mind Power course very soon after I started and over the past five years I have been exposed to the most life-changing information and experiences. Mind Power is a course based on the book by John Kehoe: Mind Power into the 21st Century. Mind Power is all about learning techniques in order to harness the power of your thoughts. Thoughts are real forces and by changing and creating your thoughts, you can change your life.
Once a 4-week course is finished, Robin runs seminars once a month for 3 months and invites a different guest speaker to each of these sessions. I heard an increcible speaker at the first evening and he spoke about Healing at the Level of Consciousness. He speaks about how the Mind and Body are connected. Everything is made up of energy vibrating at different frequencies and we have energy travelling through our bodies. Past core issues, emotions, fears and limiting beliefs are stored in your subconscious mind and eventually block the energy flow on the body. This manifests at a cellular level in the physical body in the form of illness, disease or pain. As an Applied Kinesiologist, he can find the root cause of these issues and clear the blockage using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). This was all so new to me so not much of it landed at the time. He demonstrated the some techniques on stage with people from the audience. I must admit I wanted to believe it but I was rather sceptical. I left the talk and forgot about it.
My husband and I were growing increasingly eager to start a family. There was one thing holding me back from wanting to fall pregnant…yes, you guessed it, the medication! I spoke to my GP and she referred me to a new gynae who she thought would be able to help me in my situation. I made an appointment soon after that and went to see her. I had been working very long hours I had been extremely tired all the time. Sleeping did not alleviate it in any way. I sat talking to the gynae about this and she told me that she suspected I had Adrenal Fatigue. I was also not coping with stress very well and I mentioned to her that it felt as if the Venlor medication was not as effective as they had been in the past. She emailed me information and gave me the details of Dr. Craige Golding, medical director of Solal Technologies (anti-aging specialists who make natural supplements). We also chatted about my medication. She said that she would rather I try get off the medication or at least reduce it before trying to fall pregnant. She also then emailed me articles on SSRI’s and pregnancy. Once I read the articles I was more motivated than ever to get off the Venlor.
I made an appointment with Dr. Golding soon after my visit to the gynae. A 30 minute consultation cost me R900 and the blood tests he did were in the region of about R5000.00. By this stage I was so used to coughing for medical bills and being out of medical savings that this did not deter me from going ahead with this. I needed answers and I was willing to do just about anything to get them and be drug-free. At the follow-up consultation after my blood tests were back and he had examined them, he told me that I did indeed have Adrenal Fatigue. My homocysteine levels were also dangerously high. Homocysteine can lead to cardiovascular disease amongst other things. Then there was the Serotonin which is a neurotransmitter in the brain and I didn’t have enough of it – the reason for me needing the anti-anxiety meds in the first place and it was the thorn in my side. He explained to me that after being on chemical medication such as Efexor and Venlor for a long period of time, the medication actually starts changing the chemicals in your brain and can be more damaging than anything else. There were other issues he found but for the life of me I cannot remember what they were. He put me onto about 6 different Solal products. After that I went onto Dr. Golding’s website and read up on some of the articles he had written about neurotransmitters, anti-depressants and SSRI’s. I was shocked and more motivated than ever to be rid of the medication for good. I did not want to be a robot or a slave to chemicals any longer.
After being on the Solal products for about 6 months it started feeling as if they were not working anymore. By this stage I knew my body so well that I could detect any change in my physical and mental state. The speaker I had heard started travelling to Jo’burg every few months, so I decided to take advantage because I needed help if I wanted to get off the Venlor and nothing else seemed to be successful to date.
I went from being sceptical to sold after one consultation. The issues that he found were ones I always knew were there and the timeframe that he found for each issue was frighteningly accurate. Maybe this stuff has some credibility after all. Finally and most importantly he tested the Venlor on me. He said that it was also not very effective for my anxiety anymore but I obviously could not just stop them. He also found that I did not believe that I would ever be able to come off the medication. And if you do not truly believe something deep down in your sub-conscious mind (even if consciously you do), it will never happen. He cleared those beliefs for me and also put me onto some natural supplements to ease the withdrawals from the Venlor during the weaning phase. He tested on me exactly how I was to wean from the 75mg to the 37.5 mg dosage.
I had hope again. I was going to do this, even if it was the last thing I ever did.
To be continued…
